AND so now the hockey question on everyone’s mind isn’t whether the Rangers actually have a chance to win the Stanley Cup or whether Canada can defend the Olympic Gold Medal at the Turin Games that begin next week, no, not now, not after this week.

Now, the question on everybody’s mind is simply a version of the old, sad, familiar throwback that has forever come to define cover-ups of all types and sizes.

Despite last night’s statement, in which he reiterated he had no involvement in the great NHL betting scandal, the question remains:

What did Wayne Gretzky know and when did he know it?

It keeps getting worse and worse for the NHL, now that there’s incontrovertible evidence by way of a

wiretap that The Great One indeed was aware that his wife, Janet, had been placing bets on sporting events with Rick Tocchet – who, if the conspiracy charges against him are proven guilty in court, will not only leave hockey in disgrace, but leave his socalled friends behind in a cesspool of suspicion.

We all can understand No. 99’s impulse to try to protect his wife from exposure and jeopardy. If it is true that Janet Gretzky placed wagers for as large a sum as has been reported in various respected outlets, then she has a problem. And, as husband to wife, her problem became his problem.

In far more ways than one, however.

Again, the initial instinct to turn to someone in Tocchet who appears to be as much a real friend to Wayne Gretzky as John McCain is to Barack Obama, is probably something we all would have done in a moment of panic.

As Tessio said to Tom Hagen at the end of “The Godfather,” “Can you help me out … for old time’s sake?”

But after that act of a desperate house husband, it’s nearly impossible to understand why Gretzky wouldn’t have sought legal advice. Further, it’s impossible to understand how he possibly could have thought he’d get away with lying to the press the following day when he said he knew nothing whatsoever about the allegations about his wife?

What was Gretzky thinking? Didn’t he know – doesn’t he know – that it all comes out? Didn’t he have friends in whom he could have confided and who would have given him far more intelligent counsel than any he received?

Why wouldn’t Gretzky simply have declined to answer questions on advice of an attorney? Did he really think that every good thing he has ever done in his life was somehow going to magically make all this go away?

Why didn’t he know this:

It’s the cover-up, stupid.

The NHL is quite clearly taking this seriously. The appointment of Robert Cleary, the former federal prosecutor

who handled the Unabomber case, as its lead investigator speaks to that. It’s reasonable to presume that Cleary will

be to The Tocchet Case what John Dowd was to the Pete Rose Case in baseball. Cleary’s mandate is not simply to investigate Tocchet narrowly, but to follow whatever leads he discovers.

Still, even with the appointment of Cleary, Gary Bettman’s absence from view has been striking.

As an attorney, Bettman surely is aware of what he can and cannot say. But there is no reason whatsoever that the commissioner cannot appear and issue a statement ensuring the hockey community that his administration is committed to ensuring the integrity of the sport, no matter how painful a process – or not – that might be.

And why won’t the NHL convene an emergency Board of Governors meeting by conference call to get the two-thirds vote necessary to amend the by-laws to prohibit players and executives from placing bets – legal or otherwise – on any sporting event?

Could it be because there’s an owner or two who might have an association or two they’d prefer to maintain?